People, particularly children, with limited physical capabilities or stature often require assistance of some manner when being transported from one place to another. In particular, mothers or fathers often will carry younger children from place to place in their arms. However, when carrying others in one's arms, great care and attention is needed to ensure safe transport of the transported individual, particularly if a child is being carried. In addition, when transporting someone in one's arms, the transporter's arms are then occupied and additional load carrying or cart pushing/pulling is generally impossible. Sometimes, packs or other carriers are employed to transport children on the shoulders, backs, or chests of parents, but oftentimes, such packs are unwieldy, heavy, and burdensome. The use of such packs and carriers may also lead to injuries for both the carrier and the person being carried.
Various pulled and/or pushed transportation devices have also been utilized to transport persons or loads from one place to another. Typically, wheeled devices such as wheelbarrows and carts, as well as non-wheeled devices, such as a travois, have been utilized for transporting both humans and other loads. Such devices, however, often place unsatisfactory strain on the person pulling or pushing the transportation device and are not easily transportable or storable when not in use.
In times of famine and drought, such as what occurred during the Somali famine of 2011, many families in east Africa fled their homes to begin long treks, often lasting weeks, to travel to refugee centers and camps in order to obtain food, water, and shelter. Oftentimes, a parent would have to carry their children for miles. In some cases, it was impossible for a parent to carry more than one or two children in their arms, on their backs/chests, and/or in a pushed/pulled cart or wheelbarrow. Therefore, parents were left with an impossible choice to decide which children to leave by the roadside to die of starvation or dehydration and which children to take to safety and shelter. If these families would have had access to simple transportation devices allowing them to carry more than one or two children at a time, more children would have reached the refugee centers and would have survived.
The present invention recognizes and addresses considerations of prior art constructions and methods.